J. For. Sci., 2023, 69(9):377-388 | DOI: 10.17221/56/2023-JFS

Reducing costs, improving profits: A low-cost culture media for woody plants micropropagationOriginal Paper

Ricardo Castro-Camba ORCID..., Jesús María Vielba ORCID..., Purificación Covelo, Nieves Vidal ORCID..., Conchi Sánchez ORCID...
Plant Production Department, Misión Biológica de Galicia, Spanish National Research Council, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

Micropropagation has enormous potential in the forestry industry for the mass production of elite genotypes. A limiting factor that hinders a wider adoption of this technique is its high associated cost, dissuading small producers and laboratories from its use. Thus, it is important to develop low-cost protocols to increase the competitiveness of micropropagation. The goal of the present study was to elaborate a low-cost culture medium that would allow plant growth without diminishing plant quality and production. The replacement of laboratory sucrose with commercial sugar as a carbon source, and laboratory agar with locally produced agar as a gelling agent was tested. To validate the effects of the medium for woody species micropropagation, two relevant forest species, chestnut and birch, were used and several phenotypic characteristics were recorded. Our data indicated that the substitutions made in the media composition did not alter growth or rooting parameters. Substitution of laboratory sucrose and Bacto agar by table sugar and local commercial agar provides a valuable alternative for forest species micropropagation and for increasing their potential profitability.

Keywords: birch; carbon source; chestnut; gelling agent; microshoots; woody species

Received: May 15, 2023; Revised: July 6, 2023; Accepted: July 7, 2023; Prepublished online: August 7, 2023; Published: September 22, 2023  Show citation

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Castro-Camba R, Vielba JM, Covelo P, Vidal N, Sánchez C. Reducing costs, improving profits: A low-cost culture media for woody plants micropropagation. J. For. Sci. 2023;69(9):377-388. doi: 10.17221/56/2023-JFS.
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